May 16, 2026
Come prepared…
Our class time will focus on a discussion of pollinators, then we will move over to the Pollinator Garden at Chatham Mills to do some observations.
Ashley has created a video to help prepare you for class. Please review this BEFORE you come to class, the time stamps are listed next to the topics in case you want to move back/forth through the videos. PDFs of the slides are listed in the column to the right.
Timestamps for individual sections:
- 00:00 Introduction and All About Insects
- 25:42 Insects in the Ecosystem
- 45:14 Who Did This? Identifying Insects by Plant Impact
- 54:50 Getting To Know the Neighbors
- 1:09:57 How Can We Help / Learning To Live Together
We will then move over to the Pollinator Garden, 480 Hillsborough St, Pittsboro. It is next door to the Chatham Marketplace, which you may want to plan visit.
During our visit to the garden we will practice our identification and observation skills.
information
Instructor: Dr. Ashley Troth, Extension Agent, NC Cooperative Extension, Durham County
Debbie Roos, Extension Agent, NC Cooperative Extension, Chatham County
Location: Chatham Extension Center, 1192 US 64W, Pittsboro and field trip to the Pollinator Garden, 480 Hillsborough St, Pittsboro
Time: 9:00am-noon
Pre-Class Video: Watch on YouTube
Slides: A PDF of the presentation slides
Instructor recommends…
- NC Extension Gardener Handbook, Insects (chapter 4)
- Bees of North Carolina: An Identification Guide, (2019)
- Bugs (AKA Arthropods) of Your Backyard, class materials from Carolina Backyard Naturalist, Dr. Matt Bertone, (Oct 27, 2021)
- Insect Ecology and Plant-Insect Interactions, class materials from Carolina Backyard Naturalist, Sam Marshall (Nov 17, 2021)
- Mt Cuba Center – reports from their trail garden
An article you might enjoy from Smithsonian magazine and accompanying podcast exploring the diversity of native bees, citizen science, and the impact low-tech naturalist research.
For the well-read naturalist
Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies. The Xerces Society Guide, Eric Mader & Matthew Shepherd (2011)
Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World, Sam Droege and Laurence Packer (2015)
Bees, Wasps, and Ants. The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens, Eric Grissell (2010)
Butterflies through Binoculars – The East, Jeffrey Glassberg (1999)
Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees, Thor Hanson (2018)
Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History, David Wagner (2005)
Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly, Sue Halpern (2001)
Garden Allies: The insects, birds & other animals that keep your garden beautiful and thriving (2021). Frederique Lavoipierre. Well-written stories that remind me the importance of the little things that run the world, how my actions matter, and what my garden does for others.
Good Garden Bugs: Everything Your Need to Know About Beneficial Predatory Insects, Mary Gardiner (2015)
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, Eric R. Eaton and Kenn Kaufman (2007)
Kaufman Focus Guides – Butterflies of North America, Jim P. Brock & Kenn Kaufman (2003)
Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees are at Risk and What We Can Do to Save Them, Laurence Packer (2010)
Making Nature Less Predictable: ‘Biological Strip Malls’ Have Taken Over the Planet, Ashley Braun (2022)
Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants, Heather Holm (2014)
Stokes Nature Guides – A Guide to Observing Insect Lives, Lillian Stokes (1984)
The Bees in Your Backyard. A Guide to North America’s BeesJoseph Wilson (2015)
The Pollinator Victory Garden: Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening, Kim Eierman (2020)
The Sting of the Wild, Justin Schmidt (2018)
Tracks and Signs of Insects and other Invertebrates: A Guide to North American Species, Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney (2010)